MATH 126: A Lesson In Studying

Truth be told, I was the most nervous to start MATH 126 out of all of my classes. While I knew that I was fairly competent at writing and had done well in my computer science classes in high school, I had a more varied experience with math. I think that this preconception was one of the motivations that pushed me to stay on top of studying for MATH 126 from day 1. And when I started to put in the effort, I definitely saw the results. For the first time in my life, I felt confident in my digital note-taking skills, and enjoyed putting in the time to make them look pleasing.

Despite all my aesthetic notes, however, I was somewhat disappointed when my first midterm rolled around. I didn't receive a bad grade by any means, but it was disheartening to know that there were certain questions on the test that I completely missed because I failed to apply an approach that I knew how to execute. I realized that note-taking is just half of the equation: the other half is practice. For my next midterm, I took all the past midterms written by my professor, ultimately being much more prepared and ending up with a better score.